Life's Like That
by labelbasher
Summary: Well, u all know the scenario, gohan gets kidnapped by raditz and taken to frieza's space ship. this story is about gohan's life on the space ship and how he copes with all his problems, from learning how to fight to purging planets
1. New Beginnings:Prologue

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**Life's Like That **

Chapter 1 – New Beginnings (Prologue)

Written by RJ =)

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Disclaimer: Plain and simple...I don't own Dragonball Z.

A/N: Well, here I am writing yet another Gohan fic. I decided I needed a break from the typical Gohan goes to high school fics so here I am writing this fic. I don't think this idea has been done too much, so I'm hoping that it won't be too cliched...

~~~

They stood there, each of them stunned as they stared at the newcomer.

He just laughed at their silence. He was Raditz, Saiyan warrior. They were Goku, Gohan, Bulma, Master Roshi and Krillin of the Z-Fighters.

"Why are you here?" Goku demanded, lowering himself into a fighting position in case the need came to fight.

"Why, to check up on you, my dear brother" Raditz said, and laughed "You've failed your mission and my orders are to terminate you"

A collective gasp ran through all those present, perhaps the most shocked was Goku's son, Gohan who was hiding behind his father.

He was probably the most scared too, as he'd never done any fighting in his life due to Chichi's strict studying schedule.

"Go to Bulma" Goku instructed, pushing his son away.

"Daddy!" Gohan cried as Bulma grabbed him and pulled him over to where she was standing.

"Shhh, it'll be okay," Bulma said as she tried to comfort the small child who was still trying to struggle out of her arms. But her words sounded rather hollow, she didn't quite believe them herself. By the way Goku was rather nervous of this guy, she could tell that they could be in over their head.

"Ah, Kakarot" Raditz said when he spied Gohan "Is this your offspring? He must be, he's a true Saiyan. He still has his tail, his heritage"

Gohan grabbed his tail and cuddled it to himself, he didn't like this strange guy talking about his tail like that.

Raditz just laughed again "No need to be worried, brat, come see your Uncle Raditz" he took a step towards Bulma and Gohan.

Bulma took a step backwards, pulling Gohan in tighter.

Suddenly, before she could even think, Raditz had appeared beside her and taken the small five-and-a-half-year-old.

Everyone else was just as shocked as she was.

"Hey! Give my son back!" Goku demanded, he rushed towards Raditz, ready to fight for his son.

Instead Raditz smirked and took off into the air and flew off in the direction of his space pod.

Raditz flew along as fast as he could, he could feel Kakarot's energy following behind him, but he was slowly lagging further and further behind.

He smirked and turned his attention to the crying boy. He held the boy far away from him, like he was radioactive or something.

"Shut up, brat" Raditz growled as he turned the boy to face him, "A true Saiyan does not cry"

Gohan stopped crying for a second as he looked at his kidnapper. He stared at him with wide, teary eyes.

He sniffed and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

"W-what are y-you going to do with m-me?" he questioned

"Ahhh, well that would depend on you"

"M-me?"

"Well, you'll see in a minute, won't you?" Raditz said, "We're here"

Gohan looked down to see a rather strange round pod on the ground. Raditz landed beside the pod and growled "Open"

The door slid open and a computerized female voice said "Welcome back, Master Raditz, I hope your mission was successful"

Raditz ignored the voice and he concentrated on shoving the struggling boy into the back of the pod.

"You, boy, get in there, we're going for a little ride" Raditz growled

Not wanting to get the warrior mad at him, Gohan meekly followed orders and crawled into the back of the ship. There wasn't much space there, it was rather obvious that these pods were only made for one person.

He curled up to make himself as little as possible. One reason was because he needed to fit into the space and the other was a natural human reaction, to curl up into foetal position in times of danger.

"Hold on, brat, this is going to be a rough ride" Raditz said as the pod burst into life and the computerized voice started a countdown.

"Taking off in 5...4...3...2...1"

On 1, the pod shook for a second and them blasted off. Gohan burst into tears again when he realised what was happening. He wouldn't see his mom or dad again.

"Daddy! Mommy!" he cried, beating his tiny fists against the back wall of the pod.

"Lemme go, you meanie!" he yelled at Raditz who just turned around and laughed at the young boy's plight.

"I want my daddy!" he yelled as he managed to wriggle his way into the front of the space pod. He stood on Raditz's lap and tried to punch him, his tiny fists pitter-pattering over the older warrior's chest-plate.

Raditz laughed at Gohan for a second, but quickly tiring of the small boy's efforts.

He seized the boy's fists in one of his hands and held them there as he gave the boy a talking to.

"Brat, if you behave then the consequences will be good, but if you don't, then let's just say that you will _not want to know what will happen. Now, answer me this: do you want to be good or bad?"_

Gohan stopped struggling and gulped.

"Y-yes s-sir" he said, his body going limp.

"Get in the back, brat" he growled

Gohan followed his orders and squeezed back into the back and sat squished in between the seat and the back wall and quietly cried until he fell asleep.

The next thing Gohan knew was someone roughly shaking him awake.

He slowly slipped out of dreamland and into the real world, but it was not the real world as he expected.

Instead of seeing the familiar surroundings of his bedroom, he was in a strange white room. Instead of his comfortable bed, he was lying on a cold metal bench. Instead of the sun streaming gently in through the window onto his bed, a harsh bright light shone in his eyes. Instead of his mom standing beside his bed watching him sleep, there was a strange blue creature standing over him, wearing a white lab coat with a strange emblem on the sleeve.

Gohan was no longer wearing his favorite yellow and green traditional clothes, but a blue spandex suit with some strange looking armor similar to what Raditz was wearing.

He sat up and looked around dazedly wondering if the kidnapping, which seemed so long ago, was actually real or was just a dream.

"W-where am I?" he asked

His companion chuckled then said with a strange accent "You are on Lord Frieza's spaceship"

~~~

**Author's Notes: Well, there ya go, this is the prologue, the next chappies will be much longer, on average, about twice as long, I usually write about 6 pages on Microsoft Word on size 12, so you can expect some longer chappies in the future. One last note...if you enjoyed it, please review!! Also, sorry if this chappie was a bit boring, I just needed to establish the plot. **


	2. So This Is My New Life?

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**Life's Like That **

Chapter 2 – So This is My New Life?

Written by RJ =)

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Disclaimer: Same old, same old.

Responses to Reviews:

Deanine: Wow, thanks. I think this is probably the most inspirational review I've eva got ^.^ thankies!!

MimeGirl: Thankies for your comment about the title, I wasn't sure if it was good enough and your comment was really nice. 

~~~

"What? Who's Lord Frieza?" Gohan questioned

The blue creature was literally speechless.

"You mean you know not of Lord Frieza?" he said in his strange accent.

Gohan shook his head.

"Hmmm" he mused "Stay there, boy"

The tall blue creature pressed a red button next to the door, making it slide open with a hiss of air. He exited the room and the door whooshed shut behind him.

Gohan listened to the creature's footsteps fade as he walked down the hallway.

When he couldn't hear them anymore, he silently slipped off the cold bench and walked over to the door and pressed the large red button as he'd seen the strange creature do.

He peered out the door and all he saw was an expanse of hallway stretching for miles in each direction, curving around behind him.

"Wow, it sure is big" he said quietly to himself, his words echoing slightly down the hallway.

He took a step into the hallway and looked to the left, then looked to the right.

'What now?' he thought quickly before making the decision to go to the right.

He started down the hallway, trying not to make a noise so he didn't alert others to his presence.

Gohan kept walking, taking in his surroundings with interest. There wasn't much to the hallways, just a great expanse of whiteness except for a single black stripe, which ran along the top of each side of the curved corridor.

Up ahead was a 4-way intersection. Gohan stopped for a second, listening for a noise before he made his decision. He froze when he heard a footstep.

More footsteps followed and Gohan looked around frantically for a hiding place, he didn't really want to get into trouble. But there was no place to hide in the huge expanse of smooth white walls.

"Hey, there you are" the blue creature stated as he rounded the corner "You don't want to be caught out here by one of the guards, you don't want to get on their bad side"

He turned Gohan around and led him down another corridor for what seemed like ages. Finally they stopped and the creature pressed a large red button, which made a door hiss open.

"These will be your quarters from now on," he said.

Gohan surveyed the new room quickly. The walls were a pale blue colour instead of white, and in the middle of the room was a bed and to the side was a desk with a strange looking computer-like thing sitting on it.

"I must go now," the blue creature said, turning around to face the door.

"Wait" Gohan said "I don't even know your name"

"I am Masil from the planet Yambreen" he said before leaving the room.

Gohan watched Masil disappear around the corner. Did he just say that he was from another planet? He knew from what Raditz had said that he was alien, well half alien to be precise, but it still hadn't really sunk in yet. This alien business was still very strange to him.

Gohan sat on the bed and sighed. He had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he wasn't going to see his family again for a long time, if not never.

"What would dad do?" Gohan mused "He'd be strong and not be put down by this. I've gotta be like my dad"

He sprung off the bed with renewed energy. He would survive this...whatever 'this' was.

He walked over to the desk and inspected the electronic device on it. It looked much like a computer, but it was a funny shape.

There was a button on the front, and Gohan, with the typical curiosity of a five-year-old, pressed it.

The thing burst into life and a computerized female voice similar to the one in Raditz's ship said "Welcome, Master Gohan" 

Gohan stood there, staring at the computer, stunned that it'd known his name.

"H-how do you know me?" he stuttered.

"I know lots about you, Master Gohan--" the computer was cut off when his door hissed open and a large, burly guard stood at the door.

"Lord Frieza has requested to see you now" he growled, waiting for the young demi-Saiyan, before turning and marching down the corridor again, Gohan following right on his heels.

"Excuse me, but who is Lord Frieza?" Gohan questioned, but he got no answer.

"Excuse me?" Gohan said, trying to get an answer, but gave up when he wasn't given one.

'How rude' he thought as he crossed his arms over his chest and picked up his pace to keep up with the guard.

After another walk which seemed to last forever, they finally stopped in front of a doorway bordered with an ornate golden design.

The guard opened the door and bowed low as he entered the room.

Gohan quickly copied the guard, deciding that it was probably safer for his health to play along.

When he looked up again, he saw a funny-looking purple and white lizard-type creature sitting on an elegant throne. He was holding a wineglass, which contained a purple liquid, which he was swirling around.

"So...this is my new recruit," he said, taking a small sip of his drink.

"Yes, my Lord" the guard said.

"Thank you, you may leave" the lizard guy said

There was an awkward silence as Gohan stood there, while Frieza looked over him from his perch on the throne.

"What's your name, boy?" he asked.

"S-Son G-Gohan" Gohan stuttered.

Frieza noticed Gohan's tail, which he'd tried to wrap around his waist so that it was unnoticed.

"Ahh, so you have a tail. Are you a Saiyan?" Frieza asked, his tone becoming less menacing as he realised the potential of the young boy in front of him.

"T-that's what that mean m-man said my d-daddy was" Gohan stuttered.

"Can you fight?" Frieza asked, possibilities forming in his head faster than he could voice them.

"N-no, my mom made me study, but my d-daddy can fight real good," Gohan said.

There was another silence as Frieza took another sip of his drink, draining the last drop.

"We'll have to see about that then. Your training starts tomorrow" Frieza said, then pressed a button on the side of his throne. A servant came through a door in the side of the room.

"Yes M'Lord?" the short female purple creature said.

"Get me a top-up" Frieza said, shoving his glass towards the servant "And take this boy back to his quarters"

"Yes M'Lord" the servant said, taking the glass and motioning for Gohan to follow her.

Gohan followed the servant blindly, back through the corridors of which he'd come from and back to the room that he now knew was his.

The servant stopped in front of the door and opened it for Gohan and left abruptly, without a word as soon as she'd seen the young boy enter the room.

Gohan entered the room and turned his attention back to the computer again.

"Welcome back, Master Gohan" it greeted cheerfully.

"Hi" Gohan said, then remembered his unanswered question "So, how _do you know all about me?"_

"It's simple really, we used some new technology that we acquired recently to read your thoughts when you were unconscious when you first came here" it said

"Oh" Gohan said, flopping down onto the bed "What's gonna happen to me now?"

"This is going to be your home from now on and you will fight for Lord Frieza" the computer said.

"Oh" Gohan said rather dejectedly and lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, trying to remember his parents. He was surprised and horrified to find that even after a day, he was finding it hard to remember what they looked like. Instead he tried to remember how they acted and what they would do. Comforted with the thought, he soon fell asleep.

The next day, Gohan was woken up by a shuffling sound. He opened one of his eyes a little bit to see who was in his room. It was just a servant. He could tell by the uniform she wore. She was different to the one from yesterday. She was also purple, so they must have been the same species, but her face was softer and she looked kinder.

Gohan sat up and gazed curiously at the servant.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you" she said softly as she placed a large tray of food on a table to the other side of the room.

"It's okay," Gohan said, tilting his head on an angle and asked "What's gonna happen to me today"

"I do not know for sure, but I think maybe you will get your first training" the purple servant said

"Training?" Gohan asked

A beeping sound prevented the servant from answering as she pulled a communication device out of a pocket in her apron.

"I must go now" she said and hurried out the door.

Gohan frowned but slid off his bed and went over to the tray of food and inspected it. It didn't look like anything he'd seen before, but it smelled good. He picked up a piece of food, which looked like a green piece of bread. It tasted okay, but not as good as his mother's cooking. He grabbed another piece and crammed it into his mouth. He was really starving. The rest of the meal followed soon after and soon the tray was cleared.

"Mmm, that was good" Gohan said, patting his now full stomach "But I sure do miss mom's cooking"

Suddenly, his door slid open with a hiss of air and a guard stood outside the door.

"Come, your training starts now" he said brusquely and turned around and marched down the hallway. Gohan ran to catch up with the guard and fell into step behind him.

"What's training?" he asked, but like the previous day, he got no answer.

The guard took him down another passage that he'd never been down before. How these guys knew the layout of the ship was a mystery to him, all the white was so confusing and it was definitely disorientating.

They stopped outside a set of double doors and the guard pushed them open.

Inside the room were two other people. The guard pushed him slightly so that he was in the room and then closed the doors behind him.

Standing over the other side of the room was a harsh looking creature. He was tall, red and he had claws on the end of his fingers and a blade on the side of each arm.

There was also a young girl, around Gohan's age. She wore similar armor to Gohan and she had short black hair, which had been cut messily but what was most surprising about her was that she also had a tail!

She looked over to him and gave him a small smile.

"Brat! Get over here" the red creature said 

Gohan quickly rushed over to where the other two were standing and he stood next to the girl and looked up at the creature nervously.

"I have to teach you two rookies how to fight" the creature barked "You may call me Raion"

He paused to look over the two small children, calculating something in his head.

"Fighting is quite simple really" Raion said, sinking into a fighting stance "First you go like this, then..."

Before the two kids could realise what was going on, Raion pressed a button on the wall and a door hissed open and the 4 small green creatures leapt into the room.

"These are Saibamen. Let the training begin!" Raion said, then yelled to the Saibamen "Attack!"

~~~

**Author's Notes: There ya are. The second chappie. To tell you the truth, I didn't think it would be this successful just on the first chappie so I'm happy. Now for the bad news, I won't be updating for about 3-4 weeks because my mom said I can't write cause I have exams and I have to study. So all my stories are going on hold for about that long. I'll update if I can cause I have a few more chappies of this story written up…sorri about that…^.^ peace?**


	3. Gohan's First Fight

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**Life's Like That **

Chapter 3 – Gohan's first fight

Written by RJ

~~~

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ

Responses to Reviews:

Eva-X1: There, there, I updated, now let poor Goten go! And were you gonna blackmail my Gohan with those tapes?? You weren't, were you? Hmmm? ^.^

DemonDancing: Sorri, not Videl, I don't rlly like making earthlings into Saiyans and all, but I hope u like her anyways…

Everyone: I'm back! Well, not rlly, I just found some time to post this ^.^...I hope u guys aren't too mad at me...peace? I hope you guys enjoy this chappie and you'll get to find out who the mysterious girl with Gohan is ^.^...

~~~

Gohan gasped as two of the Saibamen raced towards him. He'd never fought before, what was he supposed to do?

Gohan ran out of time to think as the one of the Saibamen reached him and threw a punch at him. Gohan dodged it just in time and ran backwards until he reached the wall. The other Saibaman threw another punch and Gohan dodged it just in time and the Saibaman punched the wall hard, leaving a small indentation. He turned his head and stared at the indentation and decided that this wasn't a very good situation and he should do something to fight back. One problem though: he didn't know how to fight. He sneaked a peek over to where the girl was. She was fighting back.

'I have to do this' Gohan thought

Gohan pulled his fist back and aimed for the Saibaman, he closed his eyes and punched his fist forward as hard as he could...and hit thin air. He opened his eyes to see the Saibaman standing about a metre away from him, laughing and mocking him.

"Grrr" Gohan growled and advanced on the Saibaman, remembering to keep his eyes open this time. He tried to punch the Saibaman again but missed again, so he leapt forward with a flurry of punches, annoyed that he couldn't get a hit in.

The Saibaman soon grew tired of playing with the boy and suddenly turned on the offensive, throwing a multitude of lightning-fast punches at Gohan.

Gohan stumbled as the Saibaman punched him in the arm, throwing him off balance. He almost fell over, but caught himself just in time only to see another punch coming his way. This one got him in the stomach and he clutched it in pain. While he was preoccupied with his sore stomach, the other Saibaman punched him again in the arm, leaving him with a nice colourful bruise.

"Ow!" Gohan said, clutching his stomach with one hand and his sore arm with the other.

'Forget the pain' Gohan ordered himself, taking his hands off his stomach and arm and settling back into a fighting position.

The Saibaman smirked as he went on attack again, aiming a punch at Gohan's already sore arm. This time Gohan dodged it, but was caught by the other Saibaman, who wrapped his arms tightly around the small boy while the other Saibaman pummeled him with punches. 

Gohan struggled against the Saibaman's strong grip but found it quite hard while the other Saibaman was attacking him.

'I can't do this' he thought in despair, struggling to avoid the blackness that was threatening to overcome him.

Meanwhile, the Saibaman was not letting up, pummeling Gohan tirelessly, and smirking as he felt the fight go out of the boy.

Gohan watched the Saibaman's fist come straight towards his face and he felt the fight go out of his body as the blackness engulfed him.

'What's this? Where am I? Mommy? Daddy? What's going on?' thoughts echoed slowly around Gohan's brain 'What happened? Mommy, I'm hungry. I want daddy. Why am I in water? What's that sound?'

Gohan slowly returned to consciousness and he opened his eyes to find himself totally immersed in water in a flexiglass tank. He was wearing an oxygen mask and there was a strange humming sound pulsating through the water and his body.

He could barely remember the fight that had happened before. He couldn't even remember how long ago it was.

'I must have blacked out' Gohan thought 'I wonder what happened'

Suddenly a large figure blocked Gohan's view out into the room. The rounded flexiglass distorted the figure, making the figure seem larger than what it really was.

He stood there for a second, checking a stats panel to one side of the regeneration tank.

"I think you're about ready, boy," he said, pressing one of the many buttons on the outside of the tank which made the water drain slowly out of the tank.

Gohan's legs touched the bottom of the tank as the water drained out. They didn't feel weak and tired as he thought they would after that fight, instead they felt like normal, maybe even slightly stronger. He looked on his arm where he got punched. There was no sign of a bruise.

Gohan's eyes widened in amazement. 'What _is this thing?' he thought._

The figure pressed another button, which made the top of the tank slide open.

"Come on, boy, get out of there" the blue creature, who was of the same species as Masil, said. He was shorter than Gohan expected and he was wearing the same white lab coat as Masil wore on the first day he got there.

Gohan stepped out of the tank and realised for the first time that he wasn't wearing any clothes. His tail loosely waved around behind him.

"Here" the creature said, thrusting a towel and a new blue spandex suit towards Gohan "Get dressed"

Gohan quickly dried himself and slipped into the spandex suit. While he was getting dressed, he noticed a new 2-inch long scar down the inside of his right arm.

'Now how did I get that?' he thought, staring at it in surprise.

The blue creature pressed a button on an intercom positioned on the wall next to them.

"The boy is ready," he said and within moments, the door hissed open to reveal a guard.

Gohan walked behind the guard who led him back to his quarters.

Gohan entered the now familiar pale blue room. He was greeted cheerfully by the computer that sat on his desk and was pleased to find that there was a large tray of food on the table across the room. He swiped a piece of strange-looking fruit off the tray and took a large bite.

Just as he was about to sit down and enjoy the rest of his meal, there was a knock at the door. Wondering who it was, because people around here usually just entered without knocking, he wandered over to the door and pressed the button, which made the door hiss open.

Standing outside the door was the girl from his training session before.

"Can I come in?" she asked

"Yeah, sure" Gohan said, stepping out of the way.

The girl entered and the door hissed closed behind her.

"Who are you?" Gohan asked.

"Oh, whoops, sorry, I'm Tora" she said, laughing slightly.

"I'm Gohan" Gohan said, "How did you find me?"

"I followed your ki," she said, then added laughingly "It also helped that I'd seen you come in here on the first day"

"Oh" Gohan said, "So, how long have you been here?"

"About 5 months now, the day after my 5th birthday. I was kidnapped, like you were, but my parents were killed so they could get me, I'm Saiyan, and I can see that you also are, and my guess is that Frieza wanted control over the last remaining Saiyans." Tora said "But I think he wanted kids so that we couldn't rebel as easily" 

"Actually I'm half Saiyan, but my dad didn't get killed, this guy just kidnapped me, he said he was my uncle but he wasn't very nice," Gohan said, playing with the end of his tail.

"Who kidnapped you?" Tora asked

"He said his name was Raditz"

"Well, that explains it, he's really weak, so the other fighters say, and he probably just told Frieza that he killed your dad"

Gohan nodded slowly, ingesting the information.

"My daddy will come and get me" he said firmly, despite the doubt he had inside him "He has to"

Tora gave Gohan a sympathetic look and sat down on the bed.

"Have you fought any before this?" she asked

"No, my mom made me study all the time. Dad wanted to train me, but mom wouldn't let him" Gohan said as he sat on a chair opposite Tora.

"That's bad, cause now you won't know how to defend yourself at trainings" Tora said

"What? You mean they're all like that!?" Gohan said, shocked.

Tora nodded "Yep, and the Saibamen don't know when to quit either, even today I had trouble beating them"

"You mean you beat those things?"

"Yea, but it took a long time before I could actually beat them, but my parents trained me before I came here, so I had an advantage"

"I don't even know how to fight at all," Gohan said sadly

Tora jumped off the bed and said excitedly "I'll teach you then!"

Gohan's mood visibly brightened "You mean it?"

"Yeah, sure" Tora said "Starting now"

The training went on for quite a while. Tora taught Gohan a good fighting stance, which offered defence as well as opportunities to attack, which she'd been taught by her parents, she said that it was a typical Saiyan fighting stance.

She showed him some defence moves and good punching and kicking techniques and they practised sparing for a little while.

By the end of about 3 hours, Tora had taught Gohan most of what she knew.

"You've learnt heaps, you're a fast learner," she said, smiling at Gohan "But I spose that's to be expected from a Saiyan"

"Thanks for teaching me" Gohan said gratefully.

"No prob" Tora said cheerfully "It's been a long time since I've had a friend around. We've gotta stick together if we wanna survive in this dump anyway"

"Right" Gohan said and it was the beginning of a strong friendship between the two 5-year-olds.

Tora left a few minutes later, leaving Gohan alone in his room once again. He remembered his meal sitting on the table and chowed down on the food to replenish his energy.

After he'd finished his meal, the computer stated that he would have to start his study now.

"What study?" Gohan asked

"It's required that you learn about various alien types for future reference," the computer said

"Oh" Gohan said, "Well, what do I do?"

"Sit back and relax, I'll show you some stats about aliens, all you need to do is remember them"

Gohan smiled, this was better than his studying at home, here he didn't have to do work, he just had to sit there and listen.

The computer flashed pictures of various alien types in front of him and read out stats. Some of the creatures he'd met already on the ship were shown on the screen. The purple servants like the one who brought his food when he woke up were Maadians, they were a rather docile race, they concentrated more on their technology, and were easily overtaken by Frieza and his minions, and now they worked for him as servants. They were from the planet Maadia. 

Raion was from a race called the Sekka, they were a fighter race, but they were naturally armed with long claws and blades down the sides of each arm, which grew when the aliens were about 10 of their years old. 

Masil's race was from the planet Yambreen. They made up most of the physicians on the ship because they were natural born healers. Their race didn't fight much, and they were very technologically advanced. 

The guards were from the planet Kriion. They were grey in colour and they usually lived in tunnels underground. They were naturally large and they fought, but weren't among the best fighters in the galaxy.

There were about 10 alien species in total that Gohan had to learn about that time. It was interesting learning about them, considering that just a few days ago, if told that there were aliens, Gohan probably wouldn't have believed it.

Gohan went over to the bed and lay down on it. He was very tired and fell asleep almost at the moment his head touched down. He slept and dreamed dreams of his life back on earth and his parents.

~~~

**Author's Notes: I hope ya liked that, and I hope that you guys will like Tora, really, she is quite lovable...in future chappies, you will get to see more of her and all and find out about her, but the main focus is still on Gohan, so don't worri about that…I would never leave my Gohan out of the picture ^.^**

And can you guess where I got the names Tora and Raion from? I'll give out cyber chocolate bars if you can =).

Oh well, I bet you guys will wanna review now eh? Well, hop to it! (geez, how old do I sound!?) quick u better stop me from going totally insane and gimme some reviews =D

Laterz!!

~RJ~


	4. We'll have a smashing time

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**Life's Like That **

Chapter 4 – We'll have a smashing time

Written by RJ

~~~

Disclaimer: I don't own that wonderful anime by the name of Dragonball Z.

Responses to Reviews:

Saiyagal: they will meet again and I'm not sure exactly how I'm gonna do it yet because I don't want it to sound like another fic I've read like this one, but I think he'll be about 10 years old.

Everyone: Soz for the late update guys.

~~~

It had been about four months since Gohan had first come onto Frieza's ship. He was nearly 6 years old now and he and Tora had become very close and were never apart for very long. They'd had 'training' sessions daily and for most of the first month, Gohan'd ended up in the regen tank after the grueling daily 'training' sessions, but after the second month, be began to hold his own against the Saibamen and now, four months later, he could easily fight back.

He'd had a few encounters with Frieza, and the lizard had taken a liking to the young demi-Saiyan and occasionally gave him a lesson in fighting which didn't involve getting beaten up by little green men.

At the moment, Gohan was in his room, doing sit-ups. He had just finished doing his 500 push-ups and he was onto his 481st sit-up.

The door hissed open just as he finished his last sit-up and Tora entered his room and sat down next to Gohan.

"Hey Gohan" she said

"Hi" Gohan said as he sat up and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"I heard that they're gonna take us down onto a planet today" Tora said

"To do what?"

"I dunno, but it'll be the first time I've been on land since I came here"

"Same here, but what do you think they'll make us do? A new type of 'training'?"

"Maybe"

Just then, the door hissed open for the second time in the last 5 minutes and a guard stood at the door.

"Come" he said simply

Gohan and Tora exchanged a look and got up from their sitting positions on the floor, but quickly got up and followed the guard out of the room.

He led them down a passage they hadn't been down before, right over to the other side of the ship. The other side was a whole lot busier than their wing. People passed them all the time and Gohan thought that they'd seen more people in the past 20 minutes than he'd seen in his total time on the ship so far.

Finally they entered a hangar with many different kinds of space ships.

"Wow" Gohan breathed as he turned around in a circle, taking in his surroundings.

"For sure" Tora said, then pulled on Gohan's arm to make him hurry up, the guard was looking back at them rather impatiently.

The guard led them to a medium sized ship and told them to board it.

Gohan and Tora boarded the ship and inside there was a rather large group of Frieza's footsoldiers. They were all Brondian footsoldiers, they were black in colour and wore a customised version of the Saiyan armor. They weren't very strong and relied on their brains and technology to defeat their enemies, but the trained ones could put up quite a good fight and they were stronger than the Saibamen.

The door closed behind them and the footsoldiers all smirked at them in unison, leaving Gohan and Tora rather unnerved.

The ship rumbled into life and they took off and flew off somewhere.

When they landed, the door opened silently and Gohan and Tora stumbled out the door, wanting to get away from the creepy footsoldiers who hadn't taken their eyes of the two since they'd got on the ship.

The world was much like earth in the sense that it had blue sky and lots of grass and trees and such. But the gravity was more than that on earth's and in the spaceship so Gohan and Tora found it rather hard to stand.

The footsoldiers, however, had no problems at all, they stood in a group staring at the two young Saiyans.

"Uhhh, what's going on?" Gohan whispered to Tora.

"Beats me," she whispered back "Another training maybe?"

"I sure hope not," Gohan whispered.

"Care to share with the rest of us?" one of the black footsoldiers said.

"No, not really" Tora said defiantly, folding her arms across her chest.

The footsoldier glared at Tora and said sarcastically "Well, we'll be having a nice training session out here on this lovely planet"

Tora and Gohan rolled their eyes but prepared to fight by sinking into their identical positions.

Two footsoldiers separated themselves from the rest of the group and ran towards Gohan and Tora, preparing to attack the young Saiyans.

The footsoldiers proved themselves to be a lot better opponents than the Saibamen.

Gohan's opponent started straight out with a punch to the stomach, which Gohan blocked, then they let forward a flurry of punches, which Gohan either blocked or dodged depending on what opportunity was provided at the time.

The footsoldier landed a punch on Gohan's arm and smirked at the demi-Saiyan. Gohan glared back at the footsoldier and attacked him in a flurry, annoyed that the Brondian got a punch in on him.

Gohan managed to get in half a dozen punches before he had to turn on the defensive again. The footsoldier drove him back until he was backed up against a tree. Gohan looked around, trying to figure a way out of it, when suddenly a fist came straight for his face. He closed his eyes, waiting for the punch to come, but when it never did, he opened his eyes and looked around, confused. He was in the tree.

'How'd I get here?' he thought. He looked down at the footsoldier, who was looking around for his opponent. There was a rather deep indentation in the trunk where his fist had connected with the tree. Gohan flinched slightly when he realised that the punch was meant for his face.

He looked over where Tora was fighting, she wasn't faring too well against her opponent, she obviously hadn't had any miraculous moving miracles happen to her yet.

'Hey, I wonder if I can do that again' Gohan thought.

He closed his eyes and thought hard about moving himself to the branch around the other side of the tree. Then he opened his eyes. He hadn't moved at all.

'Aw man' he thought.

Gohan looked down. The footsoldier was right underneath him.

'Now if I drop down now...' Gohan thought, watching the soldier's movements, timing his move perfectly.

As the soldier moved into the right position, Gohan let himself drop out of the tree and onto the soldier's head.

He wrapped his legs around the soldier's neck and covered his eyes with his hands.

The soldier didn't know what to do and turned around in circles, trying to get the small boy off his head.

Gohan gained a smirk and channeled some of his energy into his hand like he'd learnt to do when he wanted his punches to be stronger. Then he released his grip on the soldier's eyes and let loose with the punch and hit him right in the nose, his punch so strong that it made his nose bleed and it knocked the soldier unconscious.

"Yeah!" Gohan said, punching his hand up into the air as a victory gesture.

The other footsoldiers looked on, astonished that this young boy could knock one of their kind unconscious. Sure, they weren't the strongest people around, but given their experience, they thought they would have had a definite advantage over the young kids, despite what Frieza said. But when the boy knocked the other soldier unconscious and the girl was now faring pretty well also, despite how it'd seemed at the start of the fight.

"It's my turn now" one of the stronger fighters stated, advancing on the young boy.

Gohan looked at the newcomer. He reached out with his ki and sensed that the new footsoldier was stronger than the one he'd just knocked out. He took a deep breath, trying to replenish his energy. He heard a cheer over to his left. Tora had just defeated her opponent.

Gohan flashed her a smile then turned back to the other footsoldier. He was coming in fast from the side. He aimed a punch at Gohan, who dodged it and fired his own punch back, which also was dodged.

The footsoldier then faked a right and got Gohan with a left, which sent him flying into a nearby rock formation, smashing it to bits.

Gohan groaned as he pushed a large rock off his head. He wiped a small trickle of blood off the side of his mouth, jumped out of the pile of rubble and leapt through the air and landed in front of the footsoldier, giving him a glare.

The footsoldier laughed "Bring it on, kid" he said menacingly.

Gohan let loose his attack on the black footsoldier, it seemed like he was everywhere because he was punching from all directions, moving faster and faster.

The footsoldier suddenly leapt high into the air, flipped and landed a few metres away from Gohan where he switched to the offensive, forcing Gohan to turn to defensive.

The soldier attacked Gohan with a ferocious combination of kicks and punches, driving Gohan backwards just as Gohan's previous opponent had done.

Suddenly, Gohan disappeared and appeared behind the soldier.

'Wow, I did it again, how did I do it?' Gohan thought as he suddenly found himself away from the soldier.

His opponent whirled around angrily and spotted Gohan standing behind him and went on attack again.

Gohan blocked some of his punches and kicks, then he got an idea. He imagined his energy and his body moving behind the other fighter again.

Suddenly, he felt his body flying through the air very quickly and he suddenly found himself a few metres away from the spot he was imagining. Close enough.

'Sweet!' he thought, then he raced up to the confused fighter and hit him with all his strength on the back of his head, knocking the soldier unconscious.

Meanwhile, Tora was doing quite well with her second opponent, she had really tired him out and now was just playing with him. He realised that and was annoyed that a small child, and a girl at that, could beat him. He was much weaker than her first opponent, which made it a lot easier and a lot more fun for her.

Tora ran circles around the Brondian, literally. She would punch him, run around to another angle and punch him again and continue in this pattern.

Finally tiring of the game, she gave the Brondian a sharp crack on the back of his head and knocked him unconscious.

She looked over at Gohan who'd just finished with his opponent and they exchanged an amused look. Frieza had obviously underestimated their abilities, but they still didn't know what they were doing here.

The rest of the Brondians stood in a group watching the two chibis.

The group pushed one of the Brondians out towards the kids. None of them were too eager to fight them after they'd seen what happened to the other four of the footsoldiers.

But before anyone got a chance to fight anyone, a large light blue alien with green hair lowered himself through the air and landed in between the group of Brondians and the two kids.

He turned to face the Brondians and said in a strange accent, "Master Frieza is very displeased with your efforts. You let two toddlers beat you senseless" he indicated to the four lying unconscious on the ground "You are through, we have no need for weaklings"

"No! But Master Zarbon!" one of the Brondians protested, but he didn't get to finish his sentence because Zarbon fired a ki blast at the group of footsoldiers, killing them all instantly.

Gohan and Tora covered their eyes and turned away. They'd never seen cold-blooded killing like that before and they certainly didn't deserve to see that this early in their young lives.

After he'd finished dealing with the Brondian weaklings, Zarbon turned to the two Saiyans who looked up at him uncertainly.

"And as for you two" Zarbon paused, letting the kids get nervous about what he was gonna do "Master Frieza is very pleased with your progress. He says that if you keep this up, then you will make fine warriors one day"

Gohan and Tora relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that they weren't gonna get blown up anytime soon.

"Come. Follow me" Zarbon said as he led Tora and Gohan to the ship they'd come down in.

He flew the small ship off the planet and back to Frieza's space ship. He guided it into the hanger and landed in the same spot where they'd boarded.

"Master Frieza wants to see you" Zarbon said "Follow me"

Gohan and Tora followed Zarbon through the now familiar corridors to Frieza's throne room.

He opened the door and bowed as he entered the room, Gohan and Tora following suit.

"Ahhh, my two young warriors" Frieza said, "I am very pleased with you, you are becoming very strong"

"Thank you, Master Frieza" Gohan and Tora chorused

"It's just a matter of time before you will become the strongest in my army," he said, smirking slightly.

Gohan and Tora blushed slightly from the compliment and looked down at their toes.

"You may go now," he said "I need to speak with Zarbon in private"

Gohan and Tora left the room and made their way to their quarters, walking the now familiar corridors without a guard to escort them.

"That was freaky how he destroyed those Brondians just because we beat them up" Tora said, still slightly shocked at the whole ordeal.

"Yeah, I'd hate to be in their position" Gohan mused "But I really wonder why they make us do these things and why does Frieza want us so strong and why does he want us as the strongest in his army"

Tora shrugged and they walked the rest of the way in silence before going to their own separate rooms.

~~~

**Author's Notes:** There. I hope you guys like that and I'm sure you'll be kind enough to leave me a review eh? Well, what are you waiting for? Review! Heh heh…

~RJ~


	5. The First Purging Lesson

~~~

**Life's Like That **

Chapter 5 - The First Purging Lesson

Written by RJ =)

~~~

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ.

~~~

Gohan woke up early the next morning by Tora coming into his room.

She slipped into his room quietly and tiptoed over to his bed.

"Gohan?" she whispered, seeing if the demi-Saiyan was awake.

"Mmm?" Gohan mumbled, still half-asleep than anything else.

"I'm cold and lonely," she said

Gohan shuffled over in his bed, making room for Tora, she had recently started coming into his room and slept in his bed with him. They'd both just recently had their birthdays, Tora's was a couple of weeks after Gohan's. So now they were both 6 years old. Not that they had any celebrations or anything, they just quietly acknowledged it between each other.

Gohan had a feeling that she might have been having nightmares, because she was kidnapped on her 5th birthday and having another birthday might have brought the memories back in the form of nightmares.

She snuggled into his side and her breathing slowed, indicating that she was sleeping again.

Once he was sure Tora was asleep, Gohan allowed himself to also slip back into dreamland.

The next time he woke was from his computer, which started beeping at him loudly, making him wake up with a start.

He slipped out of his bed and checked the message in the pop-up window on the screen. It said –Master Frieza wants to meet you in his throne room in 15 minutes. Don't be late-

Tora was sitting up in the bed with a questioning look on her face.

"Frieza wants us to meet him in 15 minutes" Gohan said, answering the unasked question.

"Oh" Tora said "Well, I better go and get ready then" then she exited Gohan's room and made her way to her own room to get changed.

Gohan pulled another blue spandex suit out of the closet among the many other suits that looked exactly the same.

He quickly got changed and discarded of his old, ripped one, which had been ruined at yesterday's training, where he had fought one of the elite Brondians.

He stepped out into the corridor and met Tora, who was exiting her room and they made their way to Frieza's throne room.

They stopped in front of Frieza's throne room with the ornate gold framing around the door. Tora pressed the red button and the door hissed open.

"Ahhh, my young warriors" Frieza said when they entered "I have been waiting for you"

"Sorry to keep you waiting Master Frieza" Gohan said

"It's all right," Frieza said, smirking, "How have you been finding your time here?"

"It's okay" Gohan answered cautiously.

"That's good. I have a special exercise for you today"

Frieza clapped his hands and couple of guards entered the room.

"Take the kids to Hangar 3. They will be going with Raion and his crew"

Gohan and Tora exchanged a nervous glance, but nevertheless, followed the guard to the hanger.

This hangar was bigger than the previous one they'd been in, and like the other one, it was swarming with all sorts of creatures doing many different jobs.

They were led over to a spaceship similar to the one they'd been in last time. Inside the ship was Raion, with a group of 4 other people who they didn't recognise. Two of the other creatures were humanoid, and were wearing strange helmets and scouters over their eyes and the other two were green lizard-type creatures with a blue mop of hair on their head, they were also wearing scouters.

As soon as they'd entered the ship, the door slid closed and the ship rumbled into life.

After sitting in silence for a while, Tora asked, "Where are we going?"

Raion laughed "We're going down onto a planet, and I can guarantee this'll be a trip you'll never, ever forget"

Tora gulped, wishing she'd never asked that question, and Gohan shot her a worried look.

But whatever they were going to do, they were going to have to do it soon, because just then, they entered the atmosphere of the planet. The ship shook violently for a minute as it rocketed through the thick atmosphere, and they soon landed roughly on the ground of the planet.

As soon as the dust had cleared, Raion and his crew got up without a word and exited the ship.

"Come on brats, get out here!" Raion yelled when Gohan and Tora took their time about coming.

The two kids scrambled to their feet and raced outside, intimidated by the fierce Raion.

Raion smirked at the worried looks on Gohan and Tora's faces.

"Today, you will have your first lesson in planet purging" he said, laughing maniacally at the end of his sentence.

Gohan and Tora instantly became very worried and they both swallowed.

"P-purging?" Gohan said

"Yes, purging: getting rid of all life forms; making a planet ready for sale; killing creatures" Raion snarled, enjoying the effect he was having on the two young Saiyans. "Meson, Brog, grab the brats and make sure they don't get away" Raion instructed two of the other members of his crew.

Meson and Brog stepped forward and grabbed the struggling chibis.

"No! Lemme go!" Tora yelled as she struggled

"It's no use struggling, brat" Meson growled, tightening his hold "I'm bigger and stronger than you"

"And uglier" Tora muttered, but stopped struggling anyway.

Meson growled at Tora's comment, but didn't say anything.

The group then took to the air and flew towards a nearby civilisation.

Gohan could sense many low powers moving around the city. There were a few larger powers over to the west side of the city, and by the way they were spiking erratically, he could tell that they were sparing, but even so, they were heaps weaker than any of the members of their group. But what annoyed him the most was that these people didn't know what was gonna happen. These people didn't know that these moments would be the last moments of their life.

As they reached the settlement, Raion suddenly shot a ki blast into the middle of the town, immediately causing screams to arise from the small town. Gohan could sense the ki levels of the people fluctuating rapidly with their growing panic as more and more ki blasts followed.

"Stop it!" he yelled. He could hear Tora yelling for them to stop also.

The only response he got was an evil laugh from Raion and the other members of the group.

They landed in the middle of the city and they fired powerful ki beams randomly into sections of the town.

Gohan shuddered as he felt the worst feeling he'd ever felt in his whole life. The feeling of hundreds of powers fading into inexistance.

"NOOOO!!!" he yelled and broke free of Brog's grip "STOP IT!!"

He saw a small child curled up in fear next to the rubble of a fallen building. Raion was about to shoot a ki beam at her.

Gohan's eyes widened in fear when he realised that they were gonna kill her. He used his newly acquired move and phased out and appeared in front of the small girl.

He girl looked up at him, her eyes wide, wondering what he was going to do to her. Up close, he could see that the girl was about his age. His stomach did a somersault. He knew he couldn't save her, but he had to try.

"Move it, brat" Raion commanded

"No" Gohan yelled back "You can't kill her!"

"I can do what I like" Raion said "Now MOVE!!!"

Gohan stood his ground and took up a defensive position. The look of determination on his face was enough to tell you that he wasn't gonna give up easily and wasn't gonna give up without a fight.

"You have one last chance, brat. Move now of face the consequences" Raion said.

Gohan didn't reply, but gritted his teeth in preparation for the ki beam he was sure would come straight for him.

"Gohan! No!" Tora yelled, still struggling to get free of Meson's grip.

Raion held his hands out in front of him and summoned ki into his hands. He yelled out and released the attack, which zoomed towards the young demi-Saiyan.

Gohan crossed his arms in front of him and put his head down as the ki beam came racing towards him. The beam hit him hard and pushed him back half a metre, but Gohan soon regained his footing and pushed back as hard as it was coming.

Raion was getting frustrated that his beam wasn't beating Gohan yet, so he upped the strength of the beam slightly.

'Haha, this should get him' Raion thought, laughing maniacally in his mind.

Gohan gasped when he saw the bulge of extra power flow through the ki beam.

"Run, kid!" he yelled to the girl behind him.

She looked at him wide-eyed for a second, then came to her senses and ran off in the other direction.

The new burst of power pushed Gohan back even more, making long skid marks in the ground from his feet where he'd been pushed back.

'No! I have to stop this!' Gohan thought

Raion, seeing as the other burst of energy wasn't stopping Gohan's efforts at all, pushed all of his spare power into the beam, using all of his power.

'Take that, brat' he thought

Gohan saw the second bulge of energy racing through the beam straight for him. He looked at it in devastation, he knew he couldn't block it any more. The girl was gone now, and hopefully far away from here, so all he was worried about at the moment was himself.

He tried to block the extra power, but he couldn't. The huge beam engulfed him and knocked him flying. He crashed into the wall of a partially standing building and it collapsed onto him, burying him under a few metres of rubble.

Gohan was trapped under a large slab of concrete. He was lying on something sharp and it wasn't very comfortable. He was in pain and he had bruises, burns and cuts all over his body.

Suddenly, the large slab of concrete was moved, revealing the smirking face of one of the other members of the group.

"He's still alive," one of the humanoid creatures said

"Bring the little brat out here" Raion commanded.

The creature grabbed one of Gohan's arms and pulled him roughly out of the destroyed building, ignoring Gohan's grunts of pain.

The creature roughly set Gohan on the ground in front of Raion.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Raion said menacingly "A traitor? I'm sure Master Frieza would be interested in that"

Gohan refused to answer, instead, he sat there, trying to ignore the fact that his body felt like it was on fire.

Suddenly, the other humanoid member of the team appeared near them and he was holding the girl who Gohan'd protected.

When Gohan realised what they were going to do, he felt like his stomach had started tap-dancing.

"Set her down" Raion instructed.

The girl was set on the ground and she looked at Gohan with fear in her eyes, asking the question silently.

Gohan couldn't look, so he turned his head away.

Raion grabbed his head roughly and turned it to look at the trembling girl "You look!" he yelled at the young Saiyan.

While Gohan was looking, Raion shot a small ki beam at the girl's head and it neatly pierced her skull, and she fell over.

To Gohan, it seemed like this was all in slow motion. 

"NOOOOO!!" he yelled, and he twisted free of his captor and leapt down onto the ground in front of the group and got into a fighting position.

Raion laughed "You're too beaten up to fight, you'll never beat us"

Gohan ran towards Raion and started punching him, but Raion expertly blocked each and every punch that the tired Gohan was making.

Suddenly, Gohan felt a sharp crack on the back of his head and he blacked out.

"Take the brat to the ship, we're going" Raion said, firing one last ki beam into the city, destroying the last of the remaining population.

The next time Gohan woke, he was in a regeneration tank. He floated in the blue water lazily, feeling his injuries gradually healing. The burning sensation all over his body was slowly disappearing.

He closed his eyes, but quickly opened them again when his mind suddenly was filled with pictures of the girl being killed. It was playing over and over again in his head like someone had taped it and was showing it in his head on a big movie screen. He'd never thought that something like that would have such a big impact on his life.

'And this'll probably be a regular occurrence' Gohan thought in despair.

His thoughts were interrupted just then by the doctor, who came in and looked at his stats, which were displayed on a panel to the side of the machine.

"Well, little one, you're almost finished" the doctor said

Gohan sighed in relief, soon he'd be able to go back to the quiet sanctuary of his room.

About five minutes later, the machine beeped, alerting the doctor that his cycle had finished.

The doctor pressed a button and the water slowly drained and the top opened.

Gohan stepped out of the machine, making little puddles of water wherever he stepped.

"Here" the doctor said, handing Gohan a towel and a clean spandex suit.

Gohan quickly got dressed and handed the towel back to the doctor.

"Thanks" he said, then exited the door and ran down the corridors to his room.

~~~

**Author's Notes: **REVIEW!!!! That's all I ask of you…^.^

Next chapter will be out soon.

Thanks for reading

I'm just writing random stuff now

Laterz

~RJ~


	6. Downtime

~~~

**Life's Like That**

Chapter 6 - Downtime

Written by RJ =)

~~~

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ.

Author's Notes: Soz it took so long to update. I've been pretty busy working and stuff. Also, my brother bought a game programming kit and he said that for practice, he'd make a game out of my fic, but before I did that, I had to draw a pic of Tora…harder than I thought, but I think I've come up with a reasonable drawing of her, although she's still a work in progress. She kinda came out all cute and sweet… =P typical eh?. If you want to see the pic of her, email me with 'Tora' as the subject. I'd appreciate some feedback too.

Thanx.

~~~

Gohan walked back to his room in a daze. His mind kept on showing pictures of the day's events, but he just wanted to forget that this day even happened. He tried to numb his mind by thinking of happier times, but whenever he was in the middle of thinking about something good, the menacing picture of the girl dying always ripped through the image and played over and over in his head. Her pained cry haunted Gohan's mind, but the scariest thing was that he was expected to do this kinda thing all the time.

Gohan hit the side of his head a few times, hoping to preoccupy himself with pain, he'd have to make his own pain now, seeing as he was totally healed from his battle wounds.

He broke into a run as he got nearer his room, he couldn't wait to get back to the quiet sanctuary which was his own.

Just as he reached his room, Tora came out of hers. She must have sensed his ki coming.

"Gohan, are you okay?" she asked softly

"Yeah, I just don't wanna kill people," Gohan said, opening his door and motioning for Tora to follow him into his room.

They both sat down on his bed, side by side.

"Neither do I" Tora said "But Raion told me that if we didn't do that then we'd get killed" she paused then added quietly "I don't wanna die"

"Neither do I" Gohan agreed

They sat in silence for a while, then the door suddenly hissed open revealing a guard.

"Master Frieza wants to have a word with you two" he growled, then turned around and walked off.

Gohan and Tora looked at each other and swallowed loudly, but they decided that it was probably better for their health if they did go and see Frieza and see what he wanted.

They walked quickly down the many hallways, stopping before the throne room.

Gohan hesitated a second, then pressed the red button and the door hissed open.

"Come in, come in" Frieza prompted them, but funnily enough, he didn't sound angry with them, but you never know, it could all be a trick.

Gohan and Tora inched towards Frieza and stopped a couple of metres away from him and bowed their heads.

"I heard about what happened earlier today," Frieza said "Raion gave me a full report"

"I'm sorry, Master, it won't happen again" Gohan said, interrupting before Frieza could go further.

"No, no, it's fine, all it showed was that you have untapped potential and you have strong power when you're pushed. Could be interesting in the future," Frieza said, then added more menacingly "Just so long as you stay loyal to me"

"Yes, sir" Gohan and Tora chorused

"Good. You may leave now," Frieza said

Gohan and Tora turned and practically ran out the door.

"Well, that wasn't so bad" Gohan said

"Yeah, but I still don't wanna kill people," Tora said

Gohan shook his head sadly and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

Instead of going to Gohan's room, like they'd usually do, they each went to their own rooms in silence, both knowing that they needed to give the other some space for a little while.

Tora walked over to the bed in the middle of her pale yellow room. She flopped down on the hard bed and sighed. Never in a million years she thought that she would be expected to kill people in cold blood, she just didn't want to do something like that. And the thought of having to do that for possibly the rest of her life frightened her.

She rolled over on the bed and noticed that there was a tray of food on the table, and proving true to her Saiyan heritage, she jumped up and gobbled down the tray of food.

Once she was full of food, she flopped down on her bed once again and fell asleep, totally and utterly exhausted.

~*~Tora's Dream~*~

The sun was shining brightly through her bedroom window and streaming onto the covers of her bed. It was a nice, comfortable bed. Her parents didn't believe in all the junk that most Saiyans did about treating their kids roughly so they'd be prepared for the worst.

Tora was roused by the birds singing their morning song outside. All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of light and the early morning chorus suddenly stopped.

Tora giggled, her dad didn't like the birds singing in the morning. He definitely wasn't a morning person.

Then she remembered. It was her 5th birthday today.

Her face was suddenly plastered with a broad smile and she jumped out of bed and raced down the hallway to her parent's bedroom. She pushed open their door and took a running leap, somersaulted and landed in the middle of her parent's bed.

"Showing off all the new stuff you've learnt eh, Tora?" her dad teased. Normally he would behave according to the Saiyan custom and not treat his daughter like that, but it was a special day.

Tora nodded eagerly.

It's my birthday today, remember, daddy?" she said cheerfully.

"So it is" he said, nodding to his mate, who reached down beside the bed and picked up 2 gift-wrapped packages.

Tora's eyes widened with surprise and she smiled broadly.

"Are these mine?" she breathed.

"No. They're for me" her dad teased.

"Daddy" Tora scalded then took the top present off the top of the pile that her mother offered her.

She ripped off the wrapping and gasped in surprise, it was a brand new gi. Her favorite colours too. 

In the other present was a small locket with a picture of the three of them inside it.

"Oh, thank you!" Tora exclaimed and gave each of her parents a huge hug.

Suddenly, the side wall of the house seemingly disappeared. In it's place stood three burly warriors wearing scouters and a rough imitation of Saiyan armor.

Her father jumped out of bed and sank into a fighting stance in front of the three men.

Meanwhile, Tora's mother picked up Tora and turned to run out of the room, trying to protect her daughter.

One of the warriors phased out and appeared by the door.

"And where do you think you're going?" he growled, and when Tora's mom didn't move, he shoved her roughly back onto the bed.

Tora watched her father with wide eyes. He seemed to be faring well against his opponents, but in reality, he was slowly weakening.

"Come on, daddy, you can do it!" Tora yelled, one side of her admiring his fighting power and the other side worried about what would happen if the unthinkable happened...if he lost.

The rest of the fight was much of a blur to Tora and suddenly it was all over. But the next things she saw, she would never forget no matter how long she lived.

One of the warriors held his hand out, forming a ki blast, aiming it towards her father.

Tora's father, bloody and battered, looked up with his one good eye as the other was partially closed from a direct hit, at the threatening warrior from his ungraceful position slouched against the one remaining wall. He swallowed. He knew what was coming. But he took what was coming as a true Saiyan would, staring death right in the face and not worry about what it would bring.

Tora cried out loudly as soon as the ki beam was released from the warrior's hand. It traveled, it seemed, in slow motion towards her father and pierced him in the heart.

"DADDYYYY!!!" she yelled as she struggled against her mother's grip.

"No Tora" her mother ordered.

Tora stopped struggling.

Suddenly, her mother fell forward onto Tora, her body resting heavily on the young girl.

"Mama?" Tora said, anxiously, quickly turning around to see what was going on.

She wriggled out from under her mother and her mother's body flopped lifelessly onto the bed.

"Mama? Mom! Mommy!" Tora cried, getting more and more frantic as she tried to shake her mother awake.

She looked at her mother's face, her eyes were still open, her now lifeless obsidian eyes. Tora burst into tears, not caring about how a true Saiyan should behave, not caring about anything but her now dead parents. She just let the tears flow freely.

Suddenly, she felt hands drag her roughly from the bed. She struggled against their grip, but they were as firm as her father's grip, although not as gentle.

She thrashed around, waving her little fists around, still tightly clutching her locket, trying to get a hit in somewhere, but in her state, she forgot everything she'd been taught by her father and was attacking with absolutely no form at all.

That's when things turned black.

~*~End of Dream~*~

Tora sat upright in her bed, panting loudly, her heart beating so hard that she thought it would leap right out of her chest.

"It was just a dream. Just a dream" she whispered, trying to reassure herself.

She slipped soundlessly out of bed and opened the drawer in her desk. Inside was her precious locket. She opened the locket carefully and lovingly looked at the picture inside. Once she was satisfied, she replaced the locket then padded softly through the dark room, towards the door.

She opened the door and walked softly down the hallway to Gohan's room.

She entered the demi-Saiyan's room and quietly slipped into the bed next to him. She always felt safe with him. He was like a big brother to her. Someone she could always count on and someone who would always be there for her.

Gohan rolled over in his sleep, giving Tora more room. Tora shifted closer to Gohan and snuggled up to his back, falling back asleep in a mere instant.

~~~

**Author's Notes:** Well, how'd ya like that? Loved it? Hated it? Let me know. Review pleeeez.

Oh, and just to let you guys know, I think I'll make a sequel to this story, and I may turn it into a trilogy, depending on whether I lose interest in it or not.

Just a little end note, I think I have proof that Frieza's gay. In one episode when Goku and Frieza were fighting, Goku collapses against Frieza and Frieza says "And I thought you hated me"…proof enough?

~RJ~


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